You're making great posts and people like you will have no issue in 'ranking' up. It's just the lazies who got used to being able to fly through ranks just by posting the most generic of shitposts that are going to have great problems. If only they could be bothered putting the same amount of effort they do for the whining about the merit system into the regular posts they'd be no issue at all.
I have read the posts of Nullius and they are indeed extremely good. But he is an exception. The system should work for a decent majority, not only for the truly excellent ones. "people like you" you say, but there are a very few like Nullius, if at all. If only the truly excellent ones can "rank up", then you don't even need this system, you just can pick up that dozen people who is really excellent and give them a Legendary ad honorem rank and that's it. The system should allow a decent majority (or a decent minority) to rank up as if nothing had changed, and just put limits for the indecent minority (or indecent majority). There is still time to improve the system so that this is achieved.
Im glad you appreciate my posts. But what you say brings to mind something pertinent which has been sitting in my drafts pile for a few days. The relevant part is that to rank up, its not necessary to earn merit at anywhere close to the rate I do. I can often earn +2030 per day. Comparing merit and activity thresholds for rank, the system seems designed with an expectation that an ordinary, decent poster will earn on average about +1 per day. That sounds reasonable, does it not?
It sound absolutely reasonable. I couldn't agree more. The day when every ordinary, decent poster (we are not speaking about the few excellent ones) will naturally get on average one merit a day or so (or a bit less, or bit more, of course), then the merit system will have perfectly succeeded in its mission. In fact listening to theymos it was designed for achieving this result. And I would already be happy the moment it would reach even half of that success.